Excuse me while I go off and weep as I realize how old I am.
Ahh, watching “The Avengers” it brings back …
I’ve said too much.
I’m keeping my eyes closed on this thread till 8:30 pm tonight when I can finally catch it (Dexter won out over Extras on Sun. night but it was very, very close) Hopefully Maggie and Andy end up together 
and maybe he’ll finally fire his agent.
If you didn’t know who Diana Rigg is, it’s not because you’re a Yank, but because you’re young. Believe me, plenty of red-blooded American men were lusting after Mrs. Peel back in the day.
I don’t really understand Andy’s brand of artistic integrity (that he keeps abandoning). I understand him hating how they turned his original series concept into shit, and wanting to do his own stuff – but what’s wrong with doing a guest spot on “Dr. Who” or “Hotel Babylon”?
Edited to correct coding.
I was waiting for the slug to start screeching, “Is 'e ‘avin’ a laugh?!”
I assumed that the celebrities were fake ones.
Hi all,
Finally caught it the other night- the first half dragged a little for me, but appreciated it more on re-watching. Loved the second half- ended it just right and even made me feel a little sorry for wanting Andy to fire his agent. I admit getting a little teary eyed at Andy’s “I’d be the penguin” speech. The last twenty minutes were so bleak and dark, I almost expected Andy and Maggie to end in a suicide pack LOL. Got a great chuckle out of Gordan Ramsey/ Andy exchange and loved the part where Andy gives away George Michael’s “waiting” hide-out. I’ve watched enough BBC and british stuff in general, so I got most of the celebrities over the series but was a bit stumped at the Big Brother celebrities and the two guys at the restaurant- have a feeling with the two guys there was a good joke there but just went over my American head.
I will miss the series, especially Maggie’s stupid questions.
Nope, Chico at least was on X Factor last year or two years ago. I don’t know the others though. I think it’s hard to follow British C-list celebs if you don’t have the constant exposure to the tabloid culture.
Amen to that. And if you’re going to be preachy, do you think you could be a little less ham-handed? I mean, a freaking two minute monologue explicitly stating the thesis of the episode, if not the series? Please.
I guess my biggest problem with this episode – really, the whole second season – is that Andy Millman isn’t the least bit sympathetic. He’s just a whiner. He didn’t like being an extra, he didn’t like being a sell-out, he didn’t like being a has-been. And, like Maggie said, even if he had the level of success as his nemesis, it wouldn’t be enough for him; he still wouldn’t like it. And thus I don’t like him, and I don’t care if he succeeds, I don’t care if he fails, and I don’t even care if he runs away to the sea to be happy, because we all know he’s gonna start whining while in line at the airport ticket counter.
Really, they should have stuck to the celebrities making fun of themselves bit, because that was the only thing this show did right. Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart, Kate Winslet, Clive Owen – brilliant. The rest? More or less rubbish.
Perhaps after this airs in the UK on Christmas, one of the Brits can identify all of them. And I really hope that Celebrity Big Brother isn’t that humiliating.
There was Lionel Richie, but he’s pretty famous. Didn’t recognise anyone else though, but I wouldn’t have recognised Chico.
I also really liked the Ben Stiller episode. Him directing the soldier on how to properly beat the old woman to death was hilarious.
Yeah, I should have been more specific. I really liked all the celebrities sending themselves up (the ones I recognized, at least. I’m an American, so I don’t know who Ross Kemp is). The only one I didn’t like was Samuel L. Jackson, and that was because he was on the screen for all of two seconds. When I said the rest of the show was rubbish, I meant the rest of the show apart from the celebrities making fun of themselves.
I also really liked Daniel Radcliffe and Orlando Bloom’s plotlines. “Willa Wonka? Johnny Wanker.” Hee hee.
Are you having a laugh!
Sorry, couldn’t resist. CBB is actually exactly like you saw it portrayed. Here is a brilliant 6.5 minute destructive analysis of the last Celeb BB http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trcA4r41OL8. It was a cluster fuck of the highest order.
Some of the celebs were real in this some weren’t. The woman who’s kid had been killed was a fake as was the slut. The rest were real.
Black girl who “kept her dignity” was June Sarpong. A MTV type who hosts music shows and the like on CH4.
The old entertainer who put his back out was Lionel Blair. A song and dance man who was in a lot of game shows.
The singer was Lisa Scott Lee who was in a band a while ago called Steps and is now a d-list famous for being famous type who gets her tits out every now and then for the lad mags.
Chico was as already said a former X-Factor(think American Idol, it’s even got Cowell in it, in fact he owns it) finalist.
Lionel Blair, tapdancer and game show host.
The two guys trying to get a seat at the posh restaurant used to appear in public information films as “The Management.” They’d talk like Cockney hardcases and tell kids not to smoke or light fireworks in each others’ faces. I think they did comedy together in the UK as well.
I mentioned in an Extras thread that there are differences in the UK and US versions - I watched the BBC episodes first and then I saw the HBO airings later. Usually it’s the offhand remarks. I remember in particular the Keith Chegwin episode had a few differences.
I thought the episode was pretty great, though I agree Andy is a bit of a dick. It’s hard to empathize with him at times, which I think we’re supposed to, unlike David Brent. His rival is a complete cunt as well. Maggie is the likable, albeit stupid character that we all root for. But the comedy resides with Stephen Merchant and Barry from EastEnders. Now those guys crack me the fuck up…
It was a little bit longer than it should have been, and it was uneven. But overall I thought it was a fine coda to a good idea and a good series.
In many ways, I also thought it was very brave. There is of course very little difference between the real-life Gervais and the fictional Andy Millman, and nobody (least of all Gervais) would bother to deny this. It’s not as if the role is much of a stretch for him, or is meant to be. This being so, for him to fire such a fusillade of poisoned arrows at ‘sleb’ culture was quite risky and, at the very least, braver than most of what we see on our screens. Why? Because at the moment, Gervais has the Mida touch and doesn’t have to ‘lower’ himself to celebrity rubbish. But this situation might not last forever, and history suggests it usually doesn’t. When his star fades slightly, it’s going to be harder for him than for most to start doing the ‘B list’ stuff. And kudos to the BBC for broadcasting it as well, given that they broadcast their share of dire celebrity rubbish.
This was a swan song on several levels. It wasn’t just the end of ‘Extras’. Gervais and Merchant have said they don’t want to do another sitcom after ‘The Office’ and ‘Extras’, and might want to come up with some straight drama. I felt that perhaps with this last Extras they were trying to (a) burn their comedy and light entertainment bridges with as bright a flame as possible, and (b) show that they could serve up at least a dash of genuine pathos and character-based drama.
As they actually said in the programme, the duo are called Hale and Pace.
It was actually “Same Difference” dolls. Presumably somebody else’s catchphrase?
“Same Difference” are a lame act that came runner up in the X-Factor.
I suspect the Sanjaya thing was localisation for US TV? Or was it a mis-hearing?
I’m surprised the Yanks got to see this ahead of Blighty - what was that about?
I agree that this was a good way for the series to go out although yes it did go on a bit too long. I think the whole point of the show was indeed that Andy is a complete whiner and unhappy whatever happens, and the fact that he was always comparing himself to Greg whatshisface was silly. Saying that it was quite sad when it dawned on him that he was being fobbed off by his agent and generally falling off the radar quite spectacularly. The whole bit with Maggie was really tragic though, I don’t know quite why they had to make that so bleak. My mum and I were mortified by the “When the whistle blows” scenes because there are so many comedies out there that aren’t far off it.
Yes it was preachy but I was totally with Millman with his celeb speech. Personally I couldn’t give two shits about celeb culture and hate the fixation on them. Today I was listening to a radio programme that was doing the 2007 showbiz round-up and it was entirely on the lives of celebrities - what happened to focusing on films and entertainment, you know, things that actually have some meaning?
Anyway, I think Gervais has so far timed the canning of things quite well rather than watch them turn to shit, and Extras was no exception. I look forward to the next project that he produces.
I think Maggie’s decline emphasised how selfish and out of touch Andy had become, and he only realised that once he’d been isolated in the Big Brother house for a while. In my opinion the point of the programme was that Andy did realise what a dick he’d become in time to save himself, and his friendship with Maggie - there was hope at the end, just as there was with The Office.
I’ve always loved the WTWB bits precisely because they are so realistic and expertly done.